From the Oscar-winning screenwriter of To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies comes this 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning play--"an American original" (Variety). Houston, 1950: A Texas couple's attempts to make sense of the death of their son are futher complicated when the man he had been "rooming with" in Atlanta arrives.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
The title character of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize play never appears onstage. The implication is strong that he was the lover of Will and Lily Dale Kidder's son Bill. He's a needy young man who extracted from Bill thousands of the dollars Will sent him while he floundered about after World War II service. Even after Bill's suicide, which has devastated Will, the young man has importuned Bill's parents, successfully persuading Lily Dale to give him, unbeknownst to Will, half her savings. Now he's back on the Kidders' doorstep in Houston in 1950, just as Will has been let go from his job of 40 years; has incurred debts as a result of the new house, furnishings, and car he acquired to assuage his grief; and needs every penny he can scrounge. Foote's domestic demitragedy begins with some fairly creaky exposition, settles into a sort of white-bread Arthur Miller groove, and concludes in a welter of doubts about the young man from Atlanta. Ray Olson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
This recording of Horton Foote's Pulitzer Prize-winning work is an audiobook that will remind senior listeners of pre-television days when radio drama kept them glued to the Motorola. The principals in this drama about shattered lives are a long married husband and wife-first devastated by the death of their son (was it suicide? was he gay?), then by the loss of the husband's job. David Selby and Shirley Knight recreate their acclaimed stage roles with outstanding audio performances. Equally good are the minor characters who round out this compelling listening experience. T.H. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sincere Joy to Read,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Young Man From Atlanta. (Paperback)
Horton Foote is everything that today's culture is not -- thoughtful, sensitive, insightful. His works are rich, but can be accessed only by taking the time to listen and reflect, skills not well practiced these days (as evidenced by the dimwitted reviewer of the previous entry). If you cannot see his plays, please read them slowly and carefully (Both 'The Young Man from Atlanta' and 'The Last of the Thortons' are excellent choices) and the rewards will be tremendous.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Meet the Kidders.,
By
This review is from: The Young Man From Atlanta. (Paperback)
How hard it is to lose a child. There is no hyperbole in such a statement, and there is no need to assume. To read Horton Foote's The Young Man From Atlanta is to read multiple stories at once. By this notion, the lives and fortunes of the Kidder's, Will and Lily Dale are doubly shaken. Not only has their child died, but the work that Will dedicated himself to has left him behind, the friends he thought he had, the trust he knew with his wife, their world itself has been fractured. All along too is the underlying story, the sensation that resonates through the play, the ominouos, the untold, the mystery. The inability to know a son who moved away, and spent money but had nothing, who went for a swim not knowing how to swim, and knew a young man-a roommate-who shows up in the Kidder's world to grieve or to swindle. The mystery of a kindly step-father who may in his past have transgressed with younger women, of the world's whimsy at pressing it's grotesqueness upon you...
This is a deceptive play. Especially in reading, it can seem to be a straight forward, dull and obvious story. That is Foote's brilliance. These characters are not sophisticated, or conniving, or analytical to the point of paralysis or explosion. They are clear in their lives, and basic in their needs. And they are older, habits are strong, constitutions hardy. So when the dubiousness of the outside, the growing South, the mystery of their one child's death, the onslaught of a business world that is not loyal or honorable to the past impedes, that constitution fractures. Foote is one of the Great American writers. Great.
1 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Horrible Book. Not At all deserving a Pulitzer Prize.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Young Man from Atlanta : Starring Shirley Knight and David Selby (Audio Theatre Series) (Audio Cassette)
The Book had a good Plot. The way the characters where represented where horrible. You should have gotten to know them better, the author should have spent more time on the description of the characters personalities, and details of the story then just concentrating on the plot.
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